marketing channels
Study Shows Top 3 Email Priorities for 2014
A new study by StrongView, as reported in MarketingCharts, reveals the top three email priorities for 2014 by surveyed business leaders.
- Respondents are paying more attention to increasing subscriber engagement (44%).
- Improving segmentation and targeting (36%).
- Growing their opt-in email list (31%).
And, what’s their consensus on email marketing challenges? Continue reading
2 out of 3 Americans Say Social Media NOT Important
Hold your breath! Why are we spending so much time doing social media marketing if two-thirds of Americans don’t find it important? Say what?
A recent survey from Ipsos OTX says that only 32% of Americans aged 18-64 rated social’s importance a top-2 box score on a 5-point scale. That makes Americans about 20% less likely than the average respondent across 24 markets to consider social media important to them.
Other valuable stats as reported by MarketingCharts:
- Social media scores higher among women (37%) and those under-35 (45%) in the US, but those figures also lag the corresponding global averages (46% and 50%, respectively).
- American women are 32% more likely than their male counterparts to consider social media important to them (37% vs. 28%).
- There is a clear downward trend in perceived importance as the age of the respondent increases, from 45% of 18-34-year-olds down to 34% of 35-49-year-olds and 17% of 50-64-year-olds.
- Respondents from high-income households are 29% more likely than those from low-income households to consider social media to be important to them (36% vs. 28%).
- Respondents with high levels of education are 24% more likely than those with low levels of attainment to find social media important (36% vs. 29%).
- Business owners are 57% more likely than those who don’t own businesses to consider social media important to them (47% vs. 30%).
- Senior executives and decision-makers are also 57% more likely than respondents not in those positions to find social media important (47% vs. 30%).
So, what does this mean?
- If you’re marketing to American women and Millennial consumers, you should include social media marketing as part of your channel mix.
- If you’re marketing to American middle-aged and older consumers, you may need to explore multichannel marketing more.
- If you’re marketing to affluent and educated audiences, social media may be a sound part of your channel mix, but don’t rely on it without other channels.
- If you’re marketing to business owners, senior executives, and decision-makers, social media marketing is a good bet, also with other channels to round out your mix.
Bottom Line?
Don’t put all your marketing eggs in the social media marketing basket. Consider the other channels your audiences are in and use those, too.
Does this study surprise you? Why or why not?
You DON’T Have to Do it All in Marketing
It’s OK. I give you permission. Your smaller business or nonprofit doesn’t have to do every imaginable marketing tactic under the sun.
This holds especially true if you work in an environment where you regularly hear: “I just read an article about [fill in the blank] and we should be doing that.”
Answer: No, you shouldn’t!
Marketing is NOT a hodgepodge of the flavors of the month.
It isn’t something you want to change every time a new shiny tool comes along. There’s more to it than that.
To succeed with your marketing efforts takes thought, strategy, and perseverance, not having a profile on every social media site. Every business and organization is different - some have similarities, but no two are exactly the same. The ideal is to develop a marketing plan that best suits your organization, taking into account its human and financial resources.
A marketing plan not only helps organizations define where they are going and how to get there, it also helps pinpoint the specific tactics that are doable. If your organization cannot possibly manage everything on its marketing tactics list, it’s time to pare it down and focus on the “best bets” - the ones with the most promise or that have proven to be successful.
If your business or organization is locally-based, you probably don’t need that many tactics that target the entire planet. You’ll want to find those marketing channels that help it reach its targeted, local market segments. And, even if you work nationally or globally, you’ll still want to identify the marketing channels that help your organization reach its target audiences.
Another benefit of a marketing plan is establishing responsibility and accountability for marketing efforts. Gone are the days when the “marketing department” was solely responsible, whether that encompasses one individual or several. Today, everyone must be a marketer, engaging customers (donors, clients, volunteers, etc.)
Tom French, Laura LaBerge, and Paul Magill summed this up well in a McKinsey & Company article entitled, “We’re all marketers now.”
Companies of all stripes must not only recognize that everyone is responsible for marketing but also impose accountability by establishing a new set of relationships between the function and the rest of the organization. In essence, companies need to become marketing vehicles, and the marketing organization itself needs to become the customer-engagement engine, responsible for establishing priorities and stimulating dialogue throughout the enterprise as it seeks to design, build, operate, and renew cutting-edge customer-engagement approaches.”
This principle can be scaled for every organization - no matter its size.
So, sigh deeply. You don’t have to do it all in marketing, nor should you try. Be strategic for the best possible outcomes.
Is your organization trying to do too much? How is it managing? Do you have any tips to share?
New Study Shows the Ups and Downs of Traditional Media Until 2017
Not sure which channels are going to be viable for your marketing budget over the next few years? According to PwC’s 14th annual update of the online Global entertainment and media outlook, some channels are up, and well, some are down.
Here’s a brief summary of the findings:
Consumer magazine advertising
Consumer magazine advertising spend will equal roughly $15.2 billion by 2017, down from $16.4 billion last year. On the flip side, digital magazine ad spending is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9.6% to reach almost $3.8 billion by 2017.
Newspaper advertising
Advertising revenue has dropped sharply in the past 5 years, though is expected to decline more slowly over the coming 5 years. By 2017, newspaper ad revenues will total $18.4 billion.
“The researchers caution that the sector is not in ‘terminal decline,’ at least in the near or medium term. In fact it has shown some resilience, and print circulation has stabilized even as newspaper websites attract an increasing number of readers.” (MarketingCharts.com)
Out-of-home advertising (OOH)
The US out-of-home advertising market was valued at roughly $7.5 billion last year, and is projected to grow to a value of almost $9.6 billion by 2017.
“The traditional roadside billboard remains the key component of the US OOH market, accounting for 65% of total annual revenues. Transit (17%), street furniture (6%) and alternative channels (12%) make up the remainder of the revenues.”
Radio advertising
Last year, radio revenues in the US were estimated to be more than $19 billion, and that figure is expected to increase to $21.55 billion by 2017. Much of this is attributed to satellite subscriptions, which are projected to be the key driver of radio revenue growth.
TV advertising
TV advertising spending is projected to grow from $63.8 billion last year to $66.8 billion this year and $81.6 billion in 2017. There are increasingly new ways to reach consumers such as the potential for personalized advertising opened up by advanced TV services delivered to personal computers and mobile devices as well as TV sets.
There’s a lot of meat to this report, so if you want more detail, visit the PwC site. Here’s a 3-minute video synopsis by Marcel Fenez, PwC’s Global leader, Entertainment and media.
